Icebreaker games

Icebreaker games help your team loosen up, connect, and get ready to talk openly before the main part of a meeting.

You can play a game in the ICEBREAKER step of a retrospective, health check, maturity model, estimation or standup. New games are added regularly.

Available icebreaker games

Game	What you do	Players	Length	Difficulty	Good for
Random Name Picker	Spin the wheel and let it decide who goes next.	Any number	Quick (5 min)	Not rated (a tool)	Energy, Participation, Surprise
Breakout Groups	Split everyone into random groups, then drag people between groups.	4 or more	Quick (5 min)	Not rated (a tool)	Connection, Participation
Icebreaker Questions	Pick a question for the team to answer together.	3 or more	Quick (5 min)	Easy	Connection, Participation, Discussion
Two Truths and a Lie	Share three statements and see if the team can spot the lie.	3 to 12	Medium (10 min)	Moderate	Connection, Participation, Surprise
Emoji Guess	Work out the answer from a set of emoji. Fastest wins.	2 to 12	Medium (10 min)	Moderate	Fun, Competition, Thinking
Quick Quiz	Answer fast to score more points.	2 or more	Quick (5 min)	Easy	Thinking, Competition, Participation
This or That	Find out where people stand on a topic.	2 or more	Quick (5 min)	Easy	Discussion, Thinking, Participation
Team Spectrum	Guess where someone stands on a topic.	3 to 10	Quick (5 min)	Easy	Connection, Thinking, Discussion
Word Association	Build a word chain to reveal how your team thinks.	3 to 10	Medium (10 min)	Moderate	Thinking, Creativity
Mission Builder	Turn individual goals into one shared mission.	4 to 20	Quick (5 min)	Easy	Connection, Participation, Discussion
Punchline	Write the best punchline to win the round.	3 to 12	Medium (10 min)	Moderate	Fun, Creativity, Competition
Scavenger Sprint	Race to find real-world items that match the prompt.	3 to 12	Medium (10 min)	Challenging	Energy, Competition, Participation
Speed Sketch	Draw fast and guess faster to top the leaderboard.	3 to 10	Medium (10 min)	Moderate	Energy, Creativity, Competition
Sketch Relay	Draw, guess, and watch ideas transform.	4 to 10	Long (15+ min)	Moderate	Creativity, Fun, Connection
Creative Canvas	Draw on a prompt, pass it on, and watch each canvas evolve.	Any number	Quick (5 min)	Easy	Drawing, Connection, Thinking
Story Builder	Write a story together, one word at a time.	3 to 10	Quick (5 min)	Easy	Creativity, Connection, Thinking
Imposter Syndrome	Give a clue, spot the imposter, and try not to get caught.	3 to 12	Long (15+ min)	Moderate	Discussion, Thinking, Creativity
Teams Against Agility	A cheeky card game where the best answer wins.	3 to 12	Medium (10 min)	Moderate	Fun, Creativity, Competition
Franken-draw	Draw a creature together, one part at a time.	3 to 8	Medium (10 min)	Moderate	Creativity, Fun, Connection
Pitch Tank	Pitch your best idea using the prompts provided.	3 to 12	Medium (10 min)	Easy	Creativity, Energy, Competition
Whose Slide is it Anyway?	Improvise a presentation from slides you have not seen.	3 to 10	Medium (10 min)	Challenging	Creativity, Fun, Thinking

A quick game takes about 5 minutes, a medium game about 10 minutes, and a long game 15 minutes or more.

Which game for which situation

Use the table above to match a game to your group. Some common cases:

A large group, such as an all-hands (no upper player limit): Random Name Picker, Breakout Groups, Icebreaker Questions, Quick Quiz, This or That, Creative Canvas.
Short on time (about 5 minutes): Random Name Picker, Breakout Groups, Icebreaker Questions, Quick Quiz, This or That, Team Spectrum, Mission Builder, Creative Canvas, Story Builder.
A new or mixed group (easy, builds connection): Icebreaker Questions, Team Spectrum, Mission Builder, Creative Canvas, Story Builder.
Getting people talking: Icebreaker Questions, This or That, Team Spectrum, Mission Builder, Imposter Syndrome.
Lifting the energy: Random Name Picker, Scavenger Sprint, Speed Sketch, Pitch Tank.
Friendly competition: Emoji Guess, Quick Quiz, Punchline, Scavenger Sprint, Speed Sketch, Teams Against Agility, Pitch Tank.
Drawing: Speed Sketch, Sketch Relay, Creative Canvas, Franken-draw.
A team that already knows each other well (more demanding): Scavenger Sprint, Whose Slide is it Anyway?

Not rated (a tool) means the game is a facilitator tool with nothing for players to master.

Choosing a game

Each game tile shows how long the game runs, how many players it suits, and how demanding it is. Use the filters at the top of the picker to narrow the list:

CATEGORY: the kind of activity, such as competition, creativity, participation or thinking. Choose for what your team enjoys most.
DIFFICULTY: how much the game asks of participants, rather than how hard it is to facilitate. Lower difficulty is a safer choice for a new or mixed group. Higher difficulty suits a team that already knows each other well.
DURATION: how long one full round runs. Add this to your meeting length, so the icebreaker does not run into the meeting it is warming up.
GROUP SIZE: the range the game plays best at. Turn-based games slow down in a large group. Games where everyone plays at the same time work well with more people.
SEARCH: type the name of a game to go straight to it.

If you are not sure, start with something short, low difficulty, and matched to your group size. Then run PRACTICE WITH ROBOTS once before your team joins, so you know what participants will see.

Run a game in your meeting

Turn on the ICEBREAKER step in the meeting's PROCESS, then choose a game when the meeting reaches that step. The steps for each meeting type are here:

Most games have settings you can change, such as pre-made or AI-generated topics. Every game has a TIMER. To pick another game during the meeting, click CHANGE GAME.

If you would rather ask your team a single question, switch to the CLASSIC ICEBREAKER instead.

Play the games outside TeamRetro

The same games are free to play on their own at TeamRetro Icebreaker Games. Share a link to play. Participants do not need an account.

For how the games handle data, see Icebreaker Games - Privacy and Security.